Letters to the Editor

April 25, 2015

Chocolate Milk Does the Job Well

To the Sports Editor:

Re “Cornell’s Chocolate Milk Fills Refueling Gap,” April 19: I respect Clint Wattenberg and Jason Huck’s desire to provide athletes with a natural post-training product, but the creation of Big Red Refuel sounds like a step toward making a marketable product similar to many that are already available. With a 4-to-1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio, low-fat chocolate milk is a great option to promote protein repair and glycogen synthesis, so why are they messing with a good thing? It seems that Cornell’s sports nutrition and agricultural departments are less concerned with their students, and more concerned with replicating the success that Florida had with the creation of Gatorade.

REBECCA RINGER, San Jose, Calif.

To the Sports Editor:

I’m a 60-something cycling athlete cognizant of facts about fuel. In this age of protein max energy drinks, there is no substitute for chocolate milk, unless you’re lactose-intolerant. At the end of the day, sugars and kerosene-tasting energy drinks don’t get it. Restoring electrolytes with calcium as well as omega-3 is indeed the panacea.

MARK A. SLEBODA, Redford Township, Mich.

No Private Jets, Please

To the Sports Editor:

Re “Speaking Loudly, Carrying a Big Wallet,” April 22: The Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer justifies his use of a private jet to commute to his basketball team’s games with the statement “Time is our most precious commodity, and there are conveniences that wealth brings to essentially get you more time.” No, Steve, a habitable planet is our most precious commodity. Using your wealth to put an extra airplane in the air, exhausting the result of burning thousands of extra gallons of jet fuel that would not be burned if you flew commercial, is not a convenience; it’s selfish and shortsighted.

DON ALLEN, Carlisle, Mass.

A Gap in a Settlement

To the Sports Editor:

Re “Judge Approves Deal in Concussion Suit,” April 23: Approval of the N.F.L. head-injury settlement to include all former players, not just those who were a part of the class-action suit against the league, concludes this litigation, it is hoped. But this settlement does not address the fact that chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other medical conditions were most likely caused by lack of safety practices, proper helmets and equipment used in youth, high school and college sports programs. Money from the settlement and from team owners to set up a program to equip future athletes and programs with the same quality and type of safety equipment and practices used by professional sports teams should have been part of the deal.

JERALD LYDEEN, Fond du Lac, Wis.

Assessing Blackout Policy

To the Sports Editor:

Re: “Dodgers Fans Scramble to Pull Up a Chair,” April 20: Your article about Dodgers fans and the cable impasse refers to fans “illegally” streaming games. This activity is not forbidden by any government entity, but by arcane and obscure territorial rights enforced by Major League Baseball. It’s the same reason a fan in Billings, Mont., can’t stream the Mariners (their home stadium only 800 miles distant) or one in Iowa can’t watch an out-of-state broadcast of five teams — on some nights, a third of all games being played. For fans who want to hear Vin Scully call the Dodgers game, circumventing inane rules is resourceful. Perhaps it’s time for baseball and the big media companies to assess this decades-old blackout policy and let consumers who want to watch the game stream it (for a fee) rather than holding fans hostage.

ARI OFSEVIT, Cambridge, Mass.

Correction:

A letter to the editor last Sunday about Cornell’s development of Big Red Refuel, a chocolate milk for athletes recovering from workouts, misidentified the university associated with the creation of Gatorade. It is Florida, not Florida State.